Takes and trash talk from both ALL sides of the NHL's most obscure PATHETIC* rivalry

* Thanks, Kevin Lowe!

Friday, November 16, 2007

Drinky Linky Friday

It's Friday morning, and I'm on vacation (hung over) in pretty little South Bend, Indiana. So what is possessing me to post this lazy morning? I gotta link to two posts that impressed the hell out of me--lofty topics and dedicated research aren't things I tackle very much.

Andy Grabia at Battle of Alberta put in a lot of legwork and has put together a great post looking at the mainstream media blogs throughout the major cities of Canada. It's a fascinating take on what is being done well and maybe not so well in the MSM's attempt to latch onto blogfever, and what separates them from the non-MSM efforts.

Meanwhile, Christy Finn at Girl With a Puck has also put a lot of effort into her post on the role of hockey blogs in today's modern coverage. It's been a big undertaking--collecting reactions from independent bloggers, MSM members, and team representatives (including Brian Burke and Ted Leonsis -- wow!) on what credibility and relevance blogs bring into hockey coverage today.

Very impressive posts, both of them. If you're interested in the subject matter and have some time to kill, I recommend them both. If, on the other hand, you are interested in a powerful headache and a nice case of zombie's breath, I recommend a heavy dosage of Jack Daniels.

I can only speak for my own perspective here, but I hope none of you readers mistake me for a journalist; this is pretty much a fan's perspective blog. I've never really shown any interest in things like media credentials, or player or team access, or breaking news or rumors, or even reporting under my god-given name. As I've said before, "I know what side of the glass I sit on," and I'm not entirely sure that I have much more in terms of aspirations for this blog--I'm very happy with what we do and don't provide.

Anyway, anyone clear-headed enough to throw some thoughts on the subject? What is the role of blogs in hockey coverage today? What distinguishes a good blog from a bad one, or sites you read from sites you ignore? Where do you see this internet heading, two or five years down the road?

p.s. Per Kukla, crazy Russian Ilya Bryzgalov has been put on waivers, in an effort to find him a team that will play him more. Between this and Maxim Kondratiev fleeing to Russia, that means that Sammy Pahlsson is the only non-North-American-born Duck. Hooray for racism!

11 comments:

Earl Sleek said...

Sammy Pahlsson is the only non-North-American-born Duck

My head is recovering; I should note that Swiss goaltender Jonas Hiller is the likely Bryzgalov replacement, so there should be at least two Europeans on the roster.

Should Selanne ever come around or Wirtanen ever get recalled again, that could add to the total.

Megalodon said...

Noooooooooooooooooo! Bryzgalov is by far my favorite Duck, solely because of his crazy-ass interviews.

Here's hoping that wherever he ends up, they stick a camera in his face and make him explain his new mask.

Mike said...

I think this means the Ducks need to employ a Swedish bikini team, just to even it out.

I was going to write a long response to the journalism vs. blogging here, but it got too long. You can click on my name if you care.

Anonymous said...

Earl, funny you should post about this today. This morning, before I saw this, I wrote a post about the subject of fan blogging (for another project). I decided, in response to your post, to publish it on HLOG:

IPB on Fan Blogging and 2.0

The topic of fan blogging is so fascinating, it's pretty much all we talk about in real life at IPB Manor.

Earl Sleek said...

Mike and Pookie, good posts both of you (Mike's is here, for the one-click crowd). There should probably be a separate designation for bloggers who aspire to be journalists, and bloggers who aspire to never be journalists.

I'm in the latter boat, so maybe we could call ourselves "C.T.B. Bloggers" (C.T.B. = Content To Be).

As for Bryzgalov, I haven't demonstrated the proper amount of mournful whining yet; when I get back to California and if/when Breezy finds a new home I'll put a post together on that. For now, you can check out Jes' post at Fanhouse, though, that quoted me a bit.

Anonymous said...

There should probably be a separate designation for bloggers who aspire to be journalists, and bloggers who aspire to never be journalists.

Semantics really does seem to play a big role in this debate. The word "blogger" is just too vague. And it seems to me, if someone disagrees with one side or the other, they immediately begin arguing as if "blogger" has been used as a blanket term arguing against them. If that makes any sense.

I'm so a C.T.B. Blogger. Content To Be TAKING OVER THE WORLD, that is! Bwah-ha-ha!

Mike said...

Count me in as a CTB Blogger as well. Having some access to players and coaches might be useful, but only to support my half-baked theories. I'll let somebody else break the "Marcel Goc plays chess" story.

Anonymous said...

go to the east coast bryz thats all i ask...good luck man

Sean Zandberg said...

Pittsburgh would be stupid not to pick up Breezie.

Earl Sleek said...

While I'm super-linky today, I also liked your piece, Zanstorm, on Burke's explanations for waiving Breezy.

Pretty straight-up Burke, I think.

Link.

andy grabia said...

Thanks for the link, Earl. Don't want to pimp myself out too much here (okay, I do), but I also did a post in response to the comments from Burke in Christy's story. I bash Brian Burke and Californians in one fell swoop. I know you'll love that!